Radon by the Numbers – Long Description
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21,000 lung cancer deaths per year
#1 environmental cause of any cancer
#1 cause of lung cancer among people who have never smoked
10x risk of lung cancer among people who smoke compared with people who never smoked with same radon exposure
1 in 15 homes in the US have high radon levels
If radon levels are ≥ 4 pCi/L, EPA recommends installing a radon reduction system. This equals … 200 chest x-rays per year or 8 cigarettes per day. pCi/L is shorthand for picocuries per liter, the units of measurement of the amount of radon in an air sample.
2 steps to protect yourself from radon-associated lung cancer: Test your home’s radon levels. Fix your home if radon levels are ≥ 4 pCi/L.
Data sources: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the American Association of Radon Scientists & Technologists